LEELA: I don't know about you
but I'm often kept up at night wondering...
..after I put my recycling in the yellow bin,
where are they taking it?
Where?
Have you been up all night
stressing out about the recycling again?
Why don't you just...investigate?
Right, a mission!
So, it turns out that the trucks that take our general recycling
end up at plants like this one where it's carefully separated
into plastic, cardboard, metal and glass.
From there it gets kind of complicated.
Sometimes the plants turn it into new stuff right there,
sometimes it's taken to other recycling plants,
and sometimes it goes on a much, much bigger journey.
For years Australia has been selling about 1.3 million tonnes
of our recyclable waste to overseas countries
like China, Malaysia and Indonesia,
where it's converted into new things they can sell.
It was seen by many as a cheaper and easier solution.
But lately our neighbours have said
they're getting sick of dealing with our waste.
Last year China announced it was banning 24 types of waste
and would only accept recycling that was super, super clean.
And because a lot of our recycling plants
aren't equipped to clean things properly,
a lot of our recycling isn't making the cut.
Ugh!
So that recycling had to go somewhere else.
Indonesia and Malaysia have been taking a lot
but they've been struggling to deal with it too.
Earlier this year, Malaysia said they were getting sick
of receiving things like plastic bottles full of maggots -
yeah, fair enough -
and non-recyclable things like CDs and giant cables
which they had to send to landfill.
Whether it's e-waste, whether it's plastic waste
or whatever waste, we will send it back
and we will fight back.
Even though we are a small country,
we cannot be bullied by developed countries.
It means Australia is running out of places to send our waste
and that's a big problem.
In some cases companies have had to lease warehouses
to store the waste while we figure out what to do.
The biggest worry is, if we can't find a solution,
items that should be recyclable will be sent to landfill.
So, Australian local state and federal governments
and me,
and I'm guessing all of you,
are asking...
What are we going to do now?
Oh, man, I'm never going to get any sleep.
Hey, why are you dressed as a robber?
I'm a spy! I'm a spy!
There are a few different options.
We find other countries that will buy our waste.
We get our recycling clean enough so that China will accept it again
or we deal with our own waste in our own country.
There are plenty of companies here that do that already,
turning waste into everything from outdoor furniture
to playground equipment and building materials.
And some reckon there's an opportunity to do more
and create jobs in the process.
Of course, setting that up would cost a fair bit.
But many say it would be worth it.
Some say our waste crisis is also a bit of a wake-up call
to reduce the amount of packaging
we use in the first place
and get better at recycling it.
There are often different rules in different states
about what you can and can't recycle.
And some people think there should be a national labelling system.
You can't recycle that!
It's important we all do our part -
I'm looking at you, Matt -
and work together as a country to find a solution
so some of us can finally get some sleep.